All art is at once surface and symbol

Gosh, I have so many fire piggie icons, I think I'm a fangirl. But let's get down to business.

It's been what, almost a year since I've had my own computer. Meaning I haven't been able to do all the fun stuff I love like Photoshop, and I keep losing my damn fanfiction to sick computers. But I have my hard-drive from my dead computer back, with all my music and such and lost stories and projects. Now it needs a computer itself to be installed into.

I've been bugging Dad for a new computer for a long time. Now that's he's got a job *knocks on wood* and has earned enough money to buy me goodies, I've got a favor to ask everyone. What new computer should I get?

The one that died was an Acer Visa. Dad and Beau's computers are Acer Visas. I've come to realize that I hate Acer Visa. :P ("ARE YOU SURE YOU HATE ACER VISA!?" it would ask me. Over and over. :P) What computer would you recommend me? Here are my requirements:

- I want to make crazy Photoshops and icons again. Must handle Photoshop and artsy programs and such.
- I want to make AMVs. Must handle Sony Vegas without freezing or crashing.
- Great sound so I can play my library of music, nomnomnom~
- I'm giving my hand at making video games, so the new computer needs to handle programs like RPG Maker well. I want to continue my Yume Nikki-inspired Darkrai project, dammit. D:
- As well as running emulators (complete with a controller which I need to get too, nom) and games such as Eversion and I Wanna Be the Guy, I also wanna play big PC games like Portal and Braid without having the program stutter or freeze or crash. Hell, I might even recover my SIMS 2 disc and attempt once again to build my characters and download all this stuff to make them recognizable, and I don't want it to crash and spontaneously delete everything I've downloaded before I've even started. D:
- As a novelist who receives her inspiration from the arts, a computer that will allow me to do as many creative things as possible, nomnomnom~ ♥

Thanks for your FF recs on last post, everyone! I believe my sister took a bunch of her games with her, so it's likely she'll have FF9 since it's one of her favorite games ever (and her favorite FF). If not, my brother owns a PS3 and I heard you can buy Playstation classics much like WiiWare for the Wii, so I'll figure out how that works later (and when the family's not tight on money, ugh). My brother's installed an emulator on his computer already (has ROMs like Castlevania and Dragon Quest and such) and he may or may not already have FF1. If not, I can get that easily and FF3 and FF6 too. Part of me would rather buy FF3 though. D: Then there's the translation issue with FF6, auuuuugh. Basically I want the one where Kefka says all his best lines like "Son of a submariner!" and the like.

Puri beat Legendary Starfy~ ♥ I've unlocked the Puffton level so I'll get to do more stuff on that. I wonder if there's fantranslations of the other games. Probably not, but eh.

Computer time for me will be considerably less, now that Dad's computer has gone poof and disappeared. Leaving my brother's computer. And if I'm not careful, the start bar will freeze, or the computer will refuse to log in and load. Grrr. Just a warning regarding my lack of presence on the Internet, video games and reading aside. :o

And now, since my sleep schedule is screwed, I'm going to bed. At least I spent most of my night reading a bit of Chocolat and Reading Lolita in Tehran. Nomnomnomnomnom.

My brother's computer is working well enough for me to attempt playing what looks like a really cool game and Yume Nikki spinoff, .flow. Somehow I knew I was going to have a ton of trouble. Basically, I download both the English and Japanese Run-Time packages and Applelocale. I think I have the RTP. I can run the English package just fine. But everytime I try to run the Japanese package, it crashes everytime it installs up to 44% with this message:




I thought the English run-time or Applelocale was supposed to solve this problem jsdghjsggyh. I click RPG-RT and it starts up before popping up with an error message, which downloading the Japanese Run-Time is supposed to fix. And how am I supposed to run this game if I can't even access the Japanese Run-Time, huh?

I fucking hate computers. Especially Vistas, which apparently account for 80% of all my problems.

Constant negativity from my mother + Seeing 10 katrillion cockroaches in our house in one morning + Us having no food or money while Mom has the need to press about this a million times while I struggle with an overloaded sink full of disgusting dishes = AAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH gdsuijhsljgWRUI YRHd jkfhn jGDh

Doesn't help that I STILL don't have my computer back, so I can't upload any music without having to resort to crappy YouTube AMVs, and I can't do anything creative with graphics whatsoever because I don't have Photoshop on Dad's computer or all the brushes/fonts/textures I saved for it and GIMP is heavily flawed and it keeps crashing.

gsdgj kSGhjWRKgjrg jrkh grkhgjhgsfjkghdjk hgfjcgsfgjhr

I'm going to smack something if this keeps up.

Godammit. Why is my Internet so slow on my laptop? Remind me once again not to let Dad touch my computer again. Gods, it makes clicking on GPX a chore.

Puri got cabin fever, so she and Dad bid a visit to Barnes 'N Noble and Half-Price Books! Dad bought me lots of Nabokov goodness (Ada, Pnin, etc.) and I got PokeManga. This includes the first volume of PokeSpecial (YES!), a volume I was missing for Diamond & Pearl Adventures (more on that later) Mystery Dungeon with Ginji, and the Movie 11 adaptation. Now, allow me to rant on that latter. Skimming, I knew it was going to suck, but I bought it anyway for some of the cute plump Shaymin illustrations. I thought Movie 9 manga sucked? Well, so did the movie, no harm done. But what this guy did to Movie 11 is unforgivable. DD:

You know how Movie 10 manga took out the annoying bits of the movie (no more forced Accordshipping or Blame-It-All-On-Palkia syndrome!) and made the story and characters cute and enjoyable? (See: Tonio) Movie 11 manga takes the opposite route, butchering the movie by removing everything that made Movie 11 interesting and cute (Shaymin being a brat, a HUMONGOUS amount of Mugen and Zero's relationship, Shaymin's contrasting friendships with Ash & Dawn far more "subdued", etc.) and reduced it to shallow generic trash.

- The art is hideous. This sums up Makoto Hijioka's style: draw everyone's facial features as W I D E as possible and make their eyes tiny and their chins clearly pointy blank space. Mugen especially suffers from this. He looks like a gorilla. His facial expressions are so ugly it makes me cry tears of blood. The only characters that look good SOMETIMES are Shaymin (only reason I bought this at all), Giratina, Dawn and Zero. Speaking of Zero. Speaking of Zero, GOD. STOP SHOWING HIS SECOND EYE.

- Zero is OOC as fucking hell. In the movie, he's composed and quiet to the point of apathy. In the manga, he becomes Dilandau Without Substance, constantly cackling how he's going to take over the Reverse World ("and it'll belong to me, Zero!" Yes, he even addresses himself. Multiple times at that) and is just your annoying villain who never goes away. Worst of all, the manga can't make up its mind what he wants. First, Mugen is all, "Oh noes, he wants to take over the Real and Reverse Worlds!", then it's "He's gonna take over the world!", then Zero goes, "I'm going to blow up the Real World so the Reverse World belongs to me as its ruler, Zero!" Dude, which is it? His motivations for wanting to preserve the Reverse World is never explained, and Mugen himself doesn't take responsibility for Giratina's capture as he does in the film; it's all Zero's doing, uh huh. And he's doing it because he's evil and out of control. It's not like Zero felt close to Mugen and felt betrayed when Mugen suddenly decided to cancel all the plans they promised they'd finish together! It gets worse: when Mugen erases the plans and when Zero is left frozen in the Megaliba, Zero sobs like a maniac over having lost his beautiful plans. SOBS. In the movie, he was devastated when Mugen got rid of everything, yes. But he snarled and that was it. Finally, when Megaliba malfunctions, Zero has done everything he could and when he realized it was hopeless, he closed his eyes and accepted his fate, waiting for hypothermia to claim him before Officer Jenny and Mugen found him in the credits. Now which guy are you most likely to sympathize with?

- Shaymin's a damsel in distress instead of a brat (unless in Sky Forme, but that's not saying much), and Mii always refers to herself with all the "I"s and "me"s as "Miis" in its place. ("Mii doesn't like it...") It's... a different Shaymin, and it makes me cry. D: Come on, girl! Yank Ash's head around like you used to! You're supposed to be his grasshat! DDDD:

So, Shaymin manga? Huge disappointment. Don't buy it. :P Get Darkrai instead!

I didn't expect much out of Shigekatsu Ihara's Diamond and Pearl Adventures, but I finished the first volume and I loved it! Seriously, Hareta owns my soul ("I'm fine with being stupid! :DDDD") and his Piplup is made of win. Mitsumi makes me think of a lovechild between Misty and Tiff/Fumu from Kirby, and while Jun isn't the same Jun from the games, I'm fine with that 'cause he's fun too. XD (Plus he hits on Mitsumi and she always smacks him down. lulz for everyone!) The Gym Leaders, like Roark and Gardenia, appear for only a short time, but it's like I got to meet them for a day and goshdarn they're so cool. (Gardenia has her hood up in the introduction and goes stealth in the Eterna Forest!) The Munchlax chapter is so cute, and I like that Hareta lets him go instead of keeping him. From what I heard of later volumes? Gosh damn, I'm so excited! *_______* (Riley, Lucario and Riolu in Volume 2? YES PLZ) Dude, this same guy also is supposed to be responsible for the Lucario manga adaptation. DO WANT. Except I have no idea if it's translated or if it'll ever be. *sob*



Mugen the Shieldon has PokeRus~

I thought it was a rumor. I was hoping it was a rumor. But it looks like Earthbound is not going to be released on Virtual Console. :(

EB was, and will continue to be, withheld due to legal issues. It doesn't matter what anyone's opinions are on copyright law or fair use; the fact is that Nintendo's lawyers have a huge amount of leverage over the release of any game they're uncomfortable with, and EarthBound made them pretty uncomfortable. As long as NCL remains unwilling to approve changes to the game, EarthBound will stay buried.

Legal issues? What legal issues? Oh, pop culture references. Constant tributes to the Beatles. Trademarks and all that craziness. The naming screen can't even be a bizarre mix of the Monty Python theme being played at various speeds. D:

Oh well. It's not too late to join our cult.

*sigh* I could use Poo/Paula to cheer me up. I've been thinking about them today. And various other Mother 2 pairings I like and the darlings in them. ;; Oh Chosen Four! How I love thee! *whimper* You'll be in my heart, always... gosh this is getting sappy. XD

And Tony. Gosh, adorable gay stalker you.

I've got everyone's requests! I don't know what good program I can use to sing and record though. I know there's definitely some out there. :o I just don't want to narrate on Windows Movie Maker again 'cause it got all staticy. D: And gods, I always get messed up trying to fiddle with LJ's calling services so that's why I rarely (if at all) make voice posts. I hate phones. @.@;;; There's also the matter of singing in private 'cause I don't want to disturb other college kids. Recommendations? Maybe I'm being picky, but I just wanna sound my best and not screech static by being too close to the recording device. XDDD;;;

Quoted from the popup on my brother's computer, which is the same type as mine: Vista.

"This program has some known capability issues.

Check online to see if solutions are available from the Microsoft website. If solutions are found, Windows will automatically display a website with a list of steps you can follow.

Program: SIMS 2
Publisher: Maxis
Location: Blahblahblah file name

The SIMS 2 has a known capability issue with this version of Windows."

There's three buttons: Search for solutions online, Run Program, and Cancel.

Search for solutions online claims to be finding what's wrong with SIMS 2, then the window closes and absolutely nothing's happened.
Run program either runs the program anyway before it freezes, or a window opens up and says "Error found!". That's it.

This is where I'm lost. What is the Microsoft site I'm supposed to find solutions from? What are the list of steps? What IS the known "capability issue" the prevents SIMS 2 from functioning correctly on my laptop?

Basically this is what the computer is telling me: "I need you to find this person. He looks like a man."

Yeah, yeah. That's real helpful.

I downloaded a trial run of Vegas Movie Studio 9.0 because Windows Movie Maker was being a total dick about the song I wanted to use. Whenever I tried to sync clips or whatever and play them to see if they're timed, the song skips to an earlier place. It's going to be hell working on my video like this, so I need something else.

Now? I can't merge clips.

Technically, I can. (It's called "crossfading" or something like that) But whenever I adjust the little Xs or try to preview the "merged" scene, my computer stops up until it gets to a part that isn't merged and plays again. So I go through all the trouble of learning the program, but I can't see what I'm doing. W.T.F.

Maybe I'm just better off using a Mac. That's where everyone does their graphics anyway. 'Sides I'm learning to hate the hell out of Vista about now.

C'mon Puri, think happy thoughts! You may have wasted the entire day on a clumsy computer/program/whatever's the problem and failed, but you got to speak to Hedgie! Beneath the Shades is the best fanfic in the entire world~ ♥ Okay, I half-wrote it, but still. Jeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeean~! *______________________________* You're almost done with the latest SMRPG post! You worked a bit on coloring SatAM*Maria!

...I have a feeling my shorts are too small for me again 'cause they're subtly pushing on my crotch. Godammit, I can never find good shorts that fit me. :(